Friday, March 29, 2013

1. I'm giving away a copy of The Castaway by Frank Huyler at the Super Punch Tumblr. It's a chilling modern fairy tale about a cargo ship's crew that quickly comes to regret rescuing a monstrous little boy.

Design is becoming a prerequisite for business success, but with a year at a top-flight school like RISD easily costing more than $53,000, that learning doesn’t necessarily come cheap. Luckily, education marketplace Skillshare has created a new online school of design with world-class teachers that only costs $20 per class.

The professors at the Skillshare School of Design are a talented and ecclectic bunch. Stewart Scott-Curran, who designed World Cup uniforms for Nike, is teaching a class on fashion. Jessica Harllee, a designer at Kickstarter, is teaching a course on wireframing for the web. Chris Delorenzo, the lead designer for uber-hip street fashion brand Johnny Cupcakes, is teaching a course on the art of the t-shirt.

A new bus stop on Columbia Pike cost more than $1 million to build, according to a county spokeswoman.
The new prototype “Super Stop” at the corner of Columbia Pike and Walter Reed Drive cost $575,000 for construction and fabrication and $440,000 for construction management and special inspections, according to Arlington County Department of Environmental Services spokeswoman Shannon Whalen McDaniel.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Egypt's military arrests divers cutting undersea Internet cablesCoast-guard patrol arrests three divers in the act of sabotaging communications cables that connect Africa with Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, a military representative says.

Harry, Sue, and Little Ben live in a world whose lazy gods have made creatures like whales and camels but have given up their work, leaving blank spaces, “places filled with emptiness.” The children discover that they can create animals themselves, using sticks, leaves, and clay; Little Ben makes a mouse; Sue, a bird; and Harry, a snake. But Harry and Sue aren’t satisfied. They create a terrifying wolf that turns on them and eats them, and Little Ben must summon the courage to save them.

The “evil wind” in question is well-known invisible killer: carbon dioxide. Emitted by volcanic vents in active regions of Africa, the gas can settle in low-lying areas such as ditches, producing an unseen toxic area that can incapacitate and kill humans who wander within. It is estimated that 100 people die every year in the region around Lake Kivu from such Mazukus, which can be especially dangerous at night, when people sleep close to the ground.

3. Speaking of iTunes, I saw a lot of praise for iOS game Ridiculous Fishing this week. It's ok (the shooting half of the game is a chore), but inferior in every way to Super Mole Escape, which uses the same basic playing style and is free.

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